The invention relates to a method and a device for redundantly supplying several electric servomotors or drive motors by a common power electronics unit, particularly in an aircraft. Until recently, the drive technology for modern commercial aircraft was dominated by hydraulic actuators, e.g., for landing flaps, landing gears, elevators, etc. Due to the rapid developments in the field of micro and power semiconductor technology over the last 20 years, particularly with respect to structural size, switching frequency, temperature resistance and electric strength, electric drives, i.e., electric servomotors and drive motors, have also become attractive for the aircraft industry. In addition to their low maintenance expenditures, electric drives are highly efficient and flexible. There is a demand for power electronics and motors that are adapted to one another in such a way that they optimally fulfill the special requirements of the aircraft industry with respect to weight, size and reliability.
One effective option for saving weight and space is the common utilization of a power electronics unit for different aircraft systems that contain servomotors or drive motors. To this end, the availability of the common unit used needs to be improved by increasing the redundancy while simultaneously achieving an overall weight reduction of the aircraft.
A higher redundancy becomes less attractive if it is realized by multiplying independent units that, however, are intolerant to individual defects. This simple option for increasing the redundancy does not have only disadvantageous effects on the weight and the required installation space, but is also associated with the disadvantage that, for example, 50% of the weight are normally carried along in an unused fashion in a dual redundancy system while 50% of the power is lost if an individual defect occurs. In addition, the failure probability rises due to the increase of overall components per function if the intolerance to such individual defects is not reduced.